Dallas Blogger Meet-Up

We're in Dallas this week for the 2014 NAEYC Annual Conference.  It is an amazing opportunity for early childhood professionals (teachers, professors, students, directors, social workers, therapists, and so many more important people) to come together and exchange ideas.  I can't wait to share more about the things we have learned at the conference.

In addition to the conference, we had an extraordinary opportunity to meet with other kid bloggers for dinner.  My co-teacher (Super Gemma) and I met up with some of our blogger friends Erin (Preschool Ponderings) and Elissa (Mrs. Jones' Creation Station).  These girls are the BEST!  We laughed and talked like we had been friends for years.  

Although most of us had not ever met in person, we were instantly connected!  Debbie and Jenny are so much fun!  How great is this picture?!!

It is fascinating how much we have in common.  Last year, Jenny was one of the very first non-IRL friends to comment on one of my blog posts.  We chatted back and forth on email and really connected.  Then, by chance, we got to have dinner together a year later.

Jenny introduced me to Lindy (Considerate Classroom) and we ended up spending most of the following day together attending sessions and collaborating.  Lindy is an exceptional mentor teacher and consultant who works with teachers and special needs students to help non-verbal kiddos use language in their classrooms and at home.  I cannot wait to work with her to ensure that all of our Play to Learn students are able to achieve their highest potential.

The dinner event was sponsored by Holly and Rachel from the Kids Activities Blog.  They are celebrating a huge milestone-- 1 million facebook followers this week.  One Million!!

They are also celebrating the release of their fantabulous new book 101 Kids Activities that Are the Bestest, Funnest Ever!  This book is a goldmine of creative resources for teachers and parents, and they gifted each of us a copy.  Rachel signed mine, and it was her 1st official book signing.  I was honored!

I also lucked out and won a door prize gift card to Michael's.  When we get back to school, we are going to try out some of the bestest funnest activities and will share them with you here!

The dinner event was expertly coordinated by Vanessa Levin.  Vanessa's website (Pre-K pages) has been one of my go-to resources for preschool ideas from the very beginning of Play to Learn.  Vanessa is as wonderful in person as she is online.

This entire week has felt like a dream come true, and I am still on cloud nine.  It is going to take a while to digest everything that we've learned this week.  I think that I have convinced Super-Gemma to blog here as well, so that we can share everything with you!

In the meantime, we hope that you had a great week playing and learning with your children.